Insta-growth: Facebook purchase, Android app up Instagram uniques

A month after two of its two most important moments -- its jump to Android and its acquisition by Facebook -- Instagram has already reaped some of the rewards, seeing its number of unique visitors grow by 78%.

The dramatic gain in traffic placed the little photo filtering mobile app at the top of the web for growth in April, according to ComScore Inc., which released the statistics Thursday.

Instagram brought in nearly 14.6 million different individuals to its service in April, making the app the 106th-most visited property on the Internet.

By comparison, the app grew by just 19% in March with 8.2 million uniques, leaving it No. 204 on the most visited list.

Instagram's uptick was undoubtedly tied to the start-up's expansion onto Google's platform of Android phones, the leader of the smartphone market. The Android Instagram app arrived in early April, and at that time Instagram had about 30 million users.

After April's growth, Instagram is now believed to have more than 50 million users, according to Venture Beat. And of course, the mainstream exposure it received following its Facebook pick-up couldn't have hurt.

The social network giant bought Instagram just a few days after it added its Android app for the sum of $1 billion. The purchase is seen as a step by Facebook to expand its success to the smartphone platform and begin generating revenue from its mobile users.

But after Facebook released its own camera app this week, it will be interesting to see how Instagram's growth in May and June will be affected.